


Heavy Hearted Words

by Sokorra



Category: A Knight's Tale (2001)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 10:11:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1546979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sokorra/pseuds/Sokorra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phillipa de Rout thoughts during the final scenes of "A Knight's Tale"  (slightly AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heavy Hearted Words

**Author's Note:**

> This particular story was written before I saw the deleted scene from A Knight's Tale that shows Phillipa as they decided to show her. So she's slightly different. My version of her was based on some quick research using WIki and google.
> 
> I quote from the Canterbury tales at the end. It comes from the Miller’s Tale and while I haven’t actually read the tales it sounded romantic enough alone. It’s line 501 in the Modern Translation. I found it here: http://www.librarius.com/canttran/mttrfs.htm after finding the quote here: http://www.poemhunter.com/quotations/famous.asp?people=Geoffrey%20Chaucer&p=2

Philippa de Rout was a relatively average girl, despite being the lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales. She had been born into a middle-class family and educated at home, and then found favor in eyes of the king. He had found her the perfect companion for his young daughter-in-law.  
  
She was actually quite pretty in the eyes of the court, although not to herself. Her brilliant green eyes were always filled with happiness, and she had beautiful long golden blonde hair that had attracted many a suitor. She also had a mind which could stimulate another, instead of being a trophy to be hanged.  
  
At the moment she sat in a chair in the high part of the stands, slightly lower than her lady, but bored nonetheless. Adhemar was once again boasting of how he brought down the great and mighty Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein. Frankly, she found him annoying. She smiled as she thought of the Prince’s plans for the morning. She couldn’t wait to see Adhemar’s face as he realized that not only had he not brought down his valiant opponent; he was a commoner, knighted.  
  
This meant that all the people would be cheering him on.  
  
She watched as Prince Edward and his wife, the Princess Anne, walked up to their seats. She stood and bowed to them as they passed and sat down. Anne smiled down on her close companion. Today was going to a good day. Neither Anne nor Philippa had ever liked Adhemar, and were as fond of William Thatcher as Edward.  
  
“Has Sir Thatcher agreed to fight Adhemar again, my lord?” she asked Edward.  
  
“Yes, he will.” Edward smiled at the mention of his new friend. “Ah, look. There is his herald and one of his squires. He must be here already.” Philippa looked over to where Edward was pointing. Her heart stopped when her green eyes met a pair of crystal blues.  
  
Geoffrey Chaucer. That man had been in her whole life, though sporadically. She could remember at a very young age going to her cousin, John of Gout’s, home in the country.  
  
At that time he had been a page, merely 14 years old. Granted at the time he seemed an adult to her seven year old mind. Her cousin had spoken highly of him and she often would sneak around, following him, to see what was so special. She found nothing unusual, except his taste for satire and sarcasm.  
  
She hadn’t seen him again after he joined the king’s forces at 15 until the tournaments. She had been in disguise, as had Anne and Edward, hoping to participate in the joust. To everyone she was just Cat, the personal maid to the wife of Sir Thomas Colville. He had given that amazing introduction that day, the one that had made them all smile. They had chatted that night while the banquet went on, discussing a myriad of topics. It was interesting to see how his mind worked, and she finally saw what was different about him. He had the wildest imagination she had ever seen. Unfortunately it was that night that she had fallen in love with him. She turned away from his gaze, not wanting to think anymore about him.  
  
~*~  


She clapped with the rest of the audience as Adhemar flew from his horse. She smiled at the prince as he kissed his wife in celebration of Sir William Thatcher’s victory and at Lady Jocelyn as she rushed to greet the man she loved.

 

She stood and walked to where John Thatcher still sat in the stands, a huge smile on his face as he continued to listen to the commotion in honor of his son. She offered to take him down to the lists and he accepted, taking her arm as the walked down the stairs to the sandy grounds of the gaming arena.

 

“Father!” William rushed over to greet his father with Jocelyn following shortly. Philippa moved to stand beside Kate by the wall. The women stood alone as the other men had started to put away the horse.

 

“He seems happy.”

 

“He is,” Kate replied with a smile. “Not only does he have his dream, he has his love and his father.” The blacksmith looked at the other woman for a second before turning her attention back towards the celebration. “You should talk to Geoff.”

 

Philippa sighed and replied, “I know I should. But part of me doesn’t want to.”

 

“We all have to face the tough stuff sometime.” She turned with a smile. “Now if you excuse me, I have to rub this in a certain count’s bloody face.”

 

Philippa smiled and walked up to join her lady and the Prince who waited at the top of the stairs.

 

“Philippa, wait.” She turned around to see Geoff following her. She turned back to Anne and Edward, who simply smiled and nodded their permission, reminding her to meet them at the local tavern for the party the Prince—Lord Colville, to be precise—had decided to throw in Sir William’s honor.

 

“Geoff,” she simply stated, not quite looking in his eyes. “I’m sorry for misleading you earlier.” She began to desire getting it out before she lost her courage to do so. “But it was necessary to keep my Lord’s identity…”

 

“Philippa, you need not apologize. After all, you’re not the only person who has withheld the truth between us. But I need to know something. The sentiments you expressed that night…were they Cat’s or Philippa’s?” She brought her head up.

 

“Both. You see, Cat could express them more easily, but it was Philippa who felt them the most.” He smiled, and took her chin in his hand.

 

“Good to know.” He leaned down and brought her up slightly so that their lips met briefly. “Are you going to be at the party?”

 

“Yes. Will you be there?”

 

“You honestly think I would miss it?” He said with a wink. He took her hand and kissed it. “Lo, what a great thing is affection found,” he whispered, looking into her eyes. She smiled at the poetic expression.

 

“One of your writings?” But he just shrugged.

 

“Perhaps. I shall see you tonight.” With that, Geoff walked down the stairs to rejoin his friends, only once looking her direction. She started off to catch up with Anne and Edward by the time he had reached them.

 

“Well, it’s not exactly closure on that subject, but it is a start.” With hope, she thought, that it was a start of something much more than simply words.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written long ago, and I'm posting it here mostly as a showcase of my writing over the years and how it has changed. So if you were surprised by the difference in writing style from my other stories, that would be why. I wrote this over a decade ago.


End file.
